


Sparkbound

by GemmaRose



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Brotherhood, Cassetticon Hot Rod, First Time, Hot Rod Makes Questionable Life Choices, M/M, Spark Sexual Interfacing, Tactile Sexual Interfacing, Transformers Spark Bonds, of a sort, they're aliens they use the word differently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 10:49:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14283303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Rumble and Frenzy are spark brothers, it's more or less common knowledge amongst Decepticon High Command. Less common knowledge is that they weren't forged that way, and they can bring others into their sparkbond if they so wish. Others like the latest addition to Soundwave's dock, the flaming spitfire of a cassette named Hot Rod.





	Sparkbound

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't tag this as incest because none of them are related in any way, but the three of them do refer to each other in a familial way so if that's a deal-breaker for you I suggest you find something else to read.

“Yo, Rod!”

Hot Rod looked up from the tongues of fire dancing over his fingertips, letting the flames wink out when he saw his brothers approaching. “Hey Rumble, Frenzy.” he nodded to each of them. “Boss got a new mission to brief us on?”

“Nah.” Rumble waved a hand dismissively. “Frenzy and I just, have something to ask you.”

“Tell you, more like.” Frenzy bounced on the front of his pedes, and Rumble slugged him in the shoulder.

“Shh!” he hissed, then turned back to Hot Rod with a too-innocent grin. “So, Rod.” Rumble strode forwards, vaulting up onto the box he was perched on to sit at his side. “You’ve been our dockmate for a few meta-cycles now.”

“And we’ve got along pretty well, yeah?” Frenzy asked rhetorically as he mirrored his twin’s actions, landing on Hot Rod’s other side. “‘cept for when you get yelly ‘bout your paint job.”

“And when you got yelly about yours.” he teased, earning a grumble from Frenzy and a playful nudge at his EM field. He was still proud of that, even if Soundwave had made him help scrub the impromptu decals off his brothers’ fingers and claws.

“The point is, we get on pretty well.” Rumble said quickly. “So me an’ Frenzy were talking, and we decided we’d like to be the Terror Triplets.”

Hot Rod frowned slightly, looking between the twins. “Mechs already call us that, though.” he said slowly.

“Yeah, which is what got us thinking ‘bout it.” Frenzy was beaming, still bouncing slightly in place.

“Way back, me an’ Frenzy decided to become spark brothers.” Rumble pressed on. “We’d like you to become our spark brother, as well as our brother in arms.”

Hot Rod felt his mouth fall open. _Become_ spark brothers? That was possible? He’d thought that spark brothers had to be forged as such, that it was a bond as irrevocable as irrevocable got. “You’d- what?” he stammered, and Frenzy slung an arm across his shoulders. His frame was warmer than usual, almost matching Hot Rod’s own standard operating temperature.

“Merge our sparks with yours.” Frenzy grinned, his chest plating shifting back and forth suggestively as rough fingers traced the seam that ran down the middle of Hot Rod’s own chestplate. His field, previously charged with sincerity and anticipation, flickered with unmistakable lust.

“Please, Rod?” Rumble leaned in from his other side, joining his spark brother in fondling that sensitive strip of plating. His field pressed against Hot Rod’s, pulsing with clear desire-want-hope. Hot Rod’s cooling fans threatened to click on, and he shoved himself backwards, away from their hands.

“I need to- I gotta think about this.” he said quickly, tumbling off of the box and bolting before the other cassettes could reply.

It wasn't until he was tucked up in one of his many impromptu hiding places around the base that Hot Rod shuttered his optics and forced himself to _think_. Rumble and Frenzy were spark brothers, that was no secret. They hadn’t always been spark brothers, though, and _that_ shook him harder than any of Rumble’s signature attacks. Rumble and Frenzy had spark-merged, had voluntarily bound themselves to each other in the most intimate way possible. Their emotions, their spark signatures, their very lives were intertwined. And they wanted him to join their bond?

He hadn’t even known them for a century, and yet they were willing to offer him a place in their sparks in the most literal way possible. Part of him reflexively insisted it was a trick, one of their pranks falling just the wrong side of cruel, but the more he thought about it the less that option made sense. Rumble and Frenzy weren’t great liars, unlike their beastformer brothers. When they were playing a prank there was a vicious sort of mirth in their field, especially when it was one of the less kind ones. Their fields had all but surrounded him, while they propositioned him, and he hadn’t felt a lick of insincerity or malice. And if they weren’t lying, then... then they really did want him as a sparkmate.

It was almost too fantastical to believe.

\---

Hot Rod hesitated in front of Rumble and Frenzy’s door, his ventilations stalled. Soundwave was out right now, doing recon with Ravage and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, which meant they had a bit of privacy. Sure, technically Rumble and Frenzy had their own berthroom, but it was adjoined to Soundwave’s and being near to Soundwave meant a distinct lack of privacy. He checked his internal chronometer. Three cycles until Soundwave and the rest got back. If he wanted to do this, now was the time. Hot Rod lifted his hand, and knocked twice on the door.

It slid open a few nano-kliks later to reveal Frenzy, visor dim as if he’d just risen from recharge. Which he probably had, honestly. His brothers weren’t the type to ignore an opportunity for extended recharge. They stared at each other, and Hot Rod realized he’d completely forgotten whatever he’d meant to say. Frenzy grunted in annoyance, and when the door began to slide shut Hot Rod’s hand shot out to hold it open. “Wait!” he blurted, and this close he could see Frenzy’s optics narrow behind his visor. “I, uh-” he swallowed, nervous flames jittering along his lines, all but begging to be released. “I accept.”

Frenzy stared at him, confusion clouding his field, and Hot Rod elaborated. “Your offer. To be brothers? I accept.”

Frenzy stared for another nano-klik, then abruptly straightened up. “Yes!” he shouted, reaching out and pulling Hot Rod into a hug that only barely avoided denting him. He yelped as his pedes left the floor, Frenzy swinging him around as if he weighed nothing, and the door whooshed shut behind him.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Rumble muttered, propping himself vaguely upright on his and Frenzy’s shared berth.

“Rod’s said yes!” Frenzy beamed, and just like that Rumble was alert as well, scrambling off the berth to come scoop Hot Rod up in his own tight hug.

“I knew you’d come around!” he laughed, setting Hot Rod down with an uncharacteristic gentleness. He gripped Hot Rod’s shoulders tight, smiling wide enough it had to hurt at least a little. “You’re gonna love being our brother, don’t you worry.”

“I wouldn’t’ve agreed if I thought I’d hate it.” Hot Rod laughed, scratching at the middle of his breastplate. “Though, uh, I don’t really know how it works. Spark merging, that is.”

“Well, yeah.” Frenzy stepped up behind Hot Rod, arms winding around his waist. “It’s not really something that gets taught.”

“It’s like transforming.” Rumble explained. “You just, _know_.”

“Oh.” Hot Rod looked down, and blinked as he saw one of Frenzy’s arms lift from around his waist to slug Rumble in the shoulder.

“Don’t act like it’s so obvious, smartaft.” he huffed. “We didn’t figure it out ‘til we were ‘facing and it happened by accident.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s not like- ow!” Rumble rubbed his shoulder as Frenzy lowered his arm, fingers uncurling from their tight fist and landing on Hot Rod’s modesty panel.

“So, brother.” Frenzy all but purred in his audial, tracing the edges of his plating. “You never did answer, that time Buzzsaw asked how you like to frag.”

Hot Rod’s internal temperature rocketed up, and he couldn’t manage to tamp down the surge of embarrassment that washed through his field.

“Aww, why so shy?” Rumble cooed, taking his hands and tugging him gently forwards, leading him towards the berth. “It’s like you’ve never had a roll in the berth before.”

Hot Rod froze for half a nano-klik, and the other two cassettes did as well when he stumbled.

“Holy frag.” Frenzy muttered, pulling his arms away from Hot Rod’s waist to step around and face him.

“You haven’t, have you?” Rumble asked, optics wide.

“Didn’t have much of a chance, back in Nyon.” he muttered, looking aside and scuffing the tip of his pede on the floor. In his early days Blaster would never have approved, and then later... well, it was hard to find the time or energy to look for a date when everything was slowly falling to pieces around you. And since he let Soundwave talk him into becoming a cassetticon, there had been the issue of his CO’s mere reputation dissuading other mechs from showing any sort of interest in him.

“Oh ho _ho_.” Rumble grinned, taking Hot Rod’s hands more firmly. “Then let me an’ Frenzy show you a good time.” he tugged Hot Rod forwards insistently, and Hot Rod let himself be lead to the berth. Jittering flames still licked along the underside of his armour, but he couldn’t tell anymore if they were anxious or excited. Rumble guided him to kneel on the berth, and Frenzy pressed up behind him again, fingers dancing over his transformation seams. His cooling fans clicked on, loud in the otherwise silent room, and Rumble let out a pleased little moan.

“Y’know what?” Rumble grinned, straddling Hot Rod’s folded legs and dipping his fingers into the gaps between Hot Rod’s armour, toying with the wires and cables beneath. “Let’s see if we can make you overload like this.”

Behind him, Frenzy’s cooling fans clicked on, humming just a few notes lower than his own. “And then, once you’re all loosened up, we’ll merge with you.” he vented over Hot Rod’s audial, a puff of warm air that sent charge crackling down his spinal strut. His modesty panel snapped open with barely a nano-klik of warning, and Rumble chuckled as Hot Rod’s spike pressurized against his own still-sealed panel.

“Pretty.” Rumble grinned, retracting his own modesty panels and lowering one hand to dip between Hot Rod’s abdominal and pelvic plating. “Betchu overload pretty too.”

Hot Rod whimpered, then in-vented sharply as Frenzy’s tongue darted out to lave over the cables of his neck. Rumble mirrored the action a nano-klik later, and Hot Rod’s whole frame shuddered. “I’m not-” his vocaliser crackled with static as Rumble expertly stroked at his sensitive cabling, sparks dancing along his transformation seams in the wake of Frenzy’s touches. “Not fragile.” he vented heavily, arching up into Rumble’s touch, plating flared as he urged those clever fingers deeper.

“Prettymech likes it rough, huh?” Frenzy’s field flared with excitement and a fresh surge of lust, and he dug his fingers in as he dragged them down Hot Rod’s sides, scraping at his seams like he wanted to pull him apart.

Rumble’s field pulsed with concern, and Hot Rod immediately fired back an enthusiastic approval. His spark was spinning ever faster in his chassis, energy thrumming through his whole frame, and every ventilation was accompanied by a burst of static from his vocaliser. “You close?” Rumble asked, plucking at some wire deep in him that had charge shooting like lightning through his neural net.

Hot Rod nodded, then let out a static-filled cry as Rumble bent to lick a long stripe up the one seam Frenzy hadn’t laid a finger on yet. The one over his spark. “Open?” Rumble asked, his field and Frenzy’s full of eager hope, and Hot Rod’s chest plating parted. A sliver of blue light illuminated Rumble’s face, his spark shining through the slice they’d taken out of its casing to forge his deceptibrand, and behind him Frenzy moaned, hands clutching harder at the seams on his upper thighs.

“Beautiful.” Rumble breathed, reaching out to ghost his fingers over the corona of Hot Rod’s spark, just barely not touching. His own chest plating opened, another sliver of blue lighting the room, and Hot Rod couldn’t help but lift a hand towards it. Rumble’s cooling fans hitched higher as his fingers grazed the pulsing corona of energy, optics locked on the teasing hint of photonic blue that swirled and spun behind the sensor-covered metal shell.

“Go on, Rod.” Frenzy lifted a hand from Hot Rod’s thigh to cup over his spark chamber, charge racing through him at the contact with his spark's pulsing energy. “Touch him.” his vocaliser was heavy with static, field alight with desire, and Hot Rod reached that tiny bit further to brush one fingertip along the edge of the slit left by the taking of Rumble’s deceptibrand. Rumble lurched forwards, keening as Hot Rod’s hand curled around his spark chamber, and Hot Rod’s optics nearly shorted out as their chests crashing together forced Frenzy’s hand against his own spark casing.

Frenzy swore, pulling his hand free and dragging Hot Rod’s with it, and Rumble rested the side of his helm against Hot Rod’s, ragged ventilations blowing hot over his shoulder. “You’re close, aren’t you?” he asked, and Hot Rod nodded. “Together.” he said firmly, and Hot Rod couldn’t see it but he _felt_ when Rumble opened his spark chamber. Felt it in the shuddering groan that wracked Rumble’s frame, the yearning flare of his field, the tug of his own spark reaching to join its brother.

He opened his spark chamber, and the world seemed to fall away. Frenzy’s fingers on his seams, the charge singing in his neural net, his own hands clutching at the back of Rumble’s shoulders, all of it faded before the flood of Rumble’s spark into his. He could feel Rumble, his want and love and fear, sense the scars of his past life, past jobs, past berthmates. Hot Rod clutched Rumble tighter to his chest and poured his own spark into Rumble’s in return, trying to convey everything he’d never been able to put into words. His gratitude to them for taking him in, accepting him as one of their own, respecting and _loving_ him the way no others ever had.

Charge leapt between their frames, surging between their sparks, and Hot Rod wasn’t sure which one of them cried out as overload swept over them together, their sparks flaring and fusing. He tipped back, strutless, or perhaps Frenzy pulled him, laying him out on the berth and lying between his legs. He wasted no time, descending on Hot Rod’s chassis before it could close, and Hot Rod bucked up as Frenzy licked his spark. The oral lubricant tingled, evaporating near instantly from his whirling spark, and barely had he caught his fingers in a seam of Frenzy’s back plating before Frenzy was pulling himself up, mouthing at Hot Rod’s audial as he brought their sparks together.

Frenzy’s spark felt so much like Rumble’s, but it crashed into his with far more force, bringing with it a fresh charge that resonated in every strut of his frame. He pressed up against Frenzy, cooling fans screaming, and as he pressed his spark into Frenzy’s Hot Rod felt his endless well of love, his desperation to bring Hot Rod into the sparkbond, and the very edge of a lingering madness, the taste of power turned inwards to protect his brothers. Hot Rod felt his inner fire blazing brighter, reaching through his spark to twine with the maddening frequency that lived in Frenzy.

Frenzy gasped against his audial, and Hot Rod felt the overload sweep through his partner before pouring into him, the surge of energy fusing their sparks. Frenzy sat up, or rather Rumble pulled him to his knees, and Hot Rod grinned hazily up at them as Rumble’s fingers swept over Frenzy’s exposed spark. His vocaliser spat a static moan, spark flaring with the echoed lust and love and trust radiating from his brothers, and Rumble and Frenzy chuckled as Rumble pulled his hand free of Frenzy’s chest.

“C’mon.” he stroked the edge of Hot Rod’s open chestplates. “Gotta close up if you wanna make it to the washrack, Rod.”

Washrack? Hot Rod frowned for a nano-klik as he closed his sparkchamber and chest plating, then almost hit himself as he realized his lower half was covered in transfluid and valve lubricant. He must’ve overloaded harder than he thought, to forget that.

“And here I thought you two didn’t give a damn what you look like.” he teased, accepting Frenzy’s offered hand as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the berth.

“Yeah, but you do.” Rumble leaned against Frenzy’s back, arms around his brother’s waist and a small smile on his face. “And we’re sparkbound now, so...” he trailed off, and Hot Rod looked down as he pressed a hand to his chest over his spark. Right, he’d just- he’d just done that. He could still feel them in his spark, twin pulses of soft affection. He wondered how many times they’d merged, for their signatures to be so near to identical. How long it would take for his own spark to fall into such perfect synch with both of theirs.

“Can’t believe the first thing I got from you is _wanting_ to go wash up.” Frenzy laughed as he helped Hot Rod off the berth, throwing an arm around his shoulders when it turned out his legs weren’t quite as steady as he’d thought. Hot Rod laughed with him, and at the door glanced back to Rumble.

“I’ll catch up in a klik.” he waved a hand vaguely at them, then turned to get something out of the closet. Frenzy nodded, and Hot Rod let himself be guided out of the little side room into the main habsuite. The washroom door was on the opposite wall, one of the perks of living with an officer as high-ranking as Soundwave, and Hot Rod hummed contentedly as solvent sprayed down on him. Loving brothers, a carrier who treated him as an equal, a cause to dedicate himself to... yeah, things just kept looking up.

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this story, and every part of the AU it takes place in, to Melly, who threw idea seeds around on tumblr which grew into this.


End file.
